Nine killed in Israeli air strike BBC News
Nine Palestinians, including two children, have been killed and at least 30 hurt in an Israeli air raid in Gaza. The Israeli army said it had targeted "a terror cell" on its way to fire rockets at Israel on a vehicle loaded with Katyusha rocket launchers. The Islamic Jihad militant group said two of its members died in the blast. Seven civilians were also killed. The incident was the latest in an escalating series of missile attacks from both sides.

'Restraint'
The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says although Israeli strikes on vehicles travelling through the territory have become familiar, Tuesday's attack resulted in one of the heaviest death tolls.The dead were reported to include two brothers, four-year-old Hisham al-Mugrabi and eight-year-old Shaher, and their father Ashraf. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of engaging in "state terrorism". Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel had so far been showing restraint, but would no longer do so. Israel says about 100 rockets have been fired from across the Gaza border in the past few days. After Tuesday's strike a yellow van was left mangled on the main road through the north of Gaza, while pools of blood lay nearby. Islamic Jihad said the blast killed two of its militants, including its top rocket launcher, Hamoud Wadiya, the Associated Press reported.


Witnesses said the first strike was followed soon afterwards by another missile, which hit civilians and rescuers who had gone to the scene of the first blast. At least one ambulance man was reported to have been killed. Israeli military sources, however, said the latter explosion may have been caused by one of the militants' rockets. There were scenes of anger as bloodied civilians were taken to hospital. At the hospital's morgue, angry women shouted: "Death to Israel, death to the occupation!" An Israeli army statement said the attack was launched at "a vehicle loaded with rockets and carrying a terror cell en route to launch at Israel". A spokeswoman said that the van was "loaded with Katyushas". Katyushas have a longer range than the homemade rockets that are usually launched from Gaza. Witnesses cited by the Reuters news agency said they saw rockets in the back of the yellow van.

Beach blast
The upsurge in violence follows the deaths of eight Palestinians on a beach in Gaza on Friday. After those deaths, the militant group Hamas, which heads the Palestinian government, said it was breaking off its voluntary truce and launched rockets at Israel. The beach explosion was blamed by Palestinians on Israeli shelling near the area where a family was enjoying a picnic. However, Israeli officials say a military inquiry has ruled that Israel was probably not responsible and that the blast could have been caused by a mine planted on the beach by the Hamas government. Both sides suggested that cross-border attacks would continue after Tuesday's air strike. "Today we have said farewell to our martyrs and tomorrow Israel will say farewell to their dead," Islamic Jihad told Reuters. Mr Peretz said: "We have been showing restraint due to the international storm caused by the incident on the Gaza beach - but no longer."

Ex-Irish Taoiseach Haughey dies BBC News
Former Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey has died at his Dublin home at the age of 80 after a long illness. Mr Haughey had been suffering from prostate cancer and associated complications for a number of years. Premier for three separate terms between 1979 and 1992, he was widely considered to be the most controversial Irish politician of his generation. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he had no doubt history's "ultimate judgement on Mr Haughey will be a positive one". Irish President Mary McAleese said Mr Haughey had played a "highly significant, central and leading role in national politics". Mr Haughey's condition worsened in recent days and family members were keeping a vigil at his bedside at his north Dublin home at Kinsealy. A son-in-law of former Taoiseach Sean Lemass, he first hit the headlines in 1970 when he was dismissed from the cabinet over allegations that he attempted to import arms for the Provisional IRA. He was later cleared of the charge in court.The man who once described Northern Ireland as "a failed political entity" never hid his dislike of the Irish border. In a television documentary in the 1980s, he said: "It's guarded by units of the British army and I can never come up to this border without experiencing deep feelings of anger and resentment."

Relationship cooled
He was Taoiseach three times - the first was in 1979. Although he was never trusted by Northern Ireland's unionists, he enjoyed initial good relations with the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But her handling of the IRA hunger strikes of 1981, in which 10 prisoners in the Maze jail starved themselves to death, soon saw a cooling off in the relationship. Out of office, he opposed the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, but as Taoiseach two years later, he worked within the terms of the accord. Loved and disliked in almost equal measure, Charles Haughey was never given an overall majority by the Irish electorate. He survived so many leadership challenges that he became known as the Great Houdini. But in 1992, a 10-year-old phone bugging scandal led to his resignation as taoiseach.

Affair details
Out of office, his reputation became greatly tarnished. His long-time mistress Terry Keane revealed details of their affair. Speaking on Irish television, she said: "Charlie was a very important part of my life. He shaped me, he changed me in many ways and we've had a wonderful time together." Charles Haughey enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. He owned a yacht, his own island, race horses and a mansion. Many believed he was the ideal man to deal with the Irish Republic's chronic debt problem. In 1980, he said: "The figures that are just now becoming available to us show one thing very clearly - as a community we are living away beyond our means."

Lavish lifestyle
But it wasn't just the state that was living beyond its means in the 1980s. Its leader's lavish lifestyle was paid for by the patronage of business leaders such as chain store owner Ben Dunne, who gave Mr Haughey millions of pounds. He gave evidence to two tribunals that inquired into his finances. One heard that money intended for a liver transplant for the late Brian Lenihan, a former government minister, ended up in Charles Haughey's bank account. At one stage, he faced possible imprisonment for obstructing one of those investigations. Two years ago, he agreed to pay 5m euro to the country's Revenue Commission to settle outstanding tax liabilities. In April 2000, he paid out 1.28m euro as an interim settlement on tax owed on gift payments he received in the 1980s from Ben Dunne. He had been ill for several years, suffering from both prostate cancer and a weak heart.

Bali bomb cleric freed from jail BBC News
A Muslim cleric convicted over the 2002 nightclub bombings on Indonesian island Bali, which killed 202 people, has been released from prison in Jakarta. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was found guilty in March 2005 of conspiracy in connection with the bomb plot, but he was cleared of more serious charges. Security experts say the cleric is a founding member of a regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI). Supporters gathered outside the prison, cheering as he left the building. Australia, from where many of those killed in the Bali nightclub bombs came, has said it is disappointed by the cleric's release. The BBC's Rachel Harvey, in Jakarta, says Ba'asyir emerged into bright sunlight and a crowd of supporters, police and journalists. He was freed about one hour ahead of schedule, surprising many - including his lawyer, who did not arrive at the jail until his client had been whisked away. He was thought to be travelling straight to his home town of Solo, in central Java, where he runs an Islamic school. Wearing his trademark white skullcap and thick spectacles, the elderly cleric tried to give a brief speech, but his voice was barely heard among the shouting, our correspondent adds. "I will continue to fight to uphold the Islamic Sharia," he said, thanking Allah and his lawyers for continuing to support him, the Associated Press reported him as saying. With the crowd becoming increasingly excited, a group of young men formed a human barrier to allow Ba'asyir to move through the sea of jostling people towards a waiting car.

Charges dropped
Ba'asyir was first arrested shortly after the Bali nightclub bombings in October 2002, although he was never accused of taking part in the attack.


Two bombs ripped through the Kuta area of Bali, a regular haunt for tourists, destroying a nightclub and killing mainly foreigners. Ba'asyir was held in custody and faced two separate trials, eventually serving two separate sentences, the first for minor immigration offences, the second for being part of what the court called an "evil conspiracy". In both cases more serious charges were either dropped or later overturned on appeal.

Back to teaching
Indonesian and foreign intelligence agencies believe Ba'asyir was, and perhaps still is, the spiritual leader of radical network JI. Viewed within Indonesia as a charismatic, influential Muslim leader, he has a reputation for violent anti-Western rhetoric, our correspondent says. Members of JI are accused of being behind a number of operations in Indonesia, including two suicide attacks in Jakarta and the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings. But most of these attacks took place while Ba'asyir was in prison and he denies JI even exists. He claims he was the victim of an American-inspired plot to undermine Islam. The 68-year-old cleric has said that once released he planned to return to the boarding-school he founded and to continue teaching.

Survivors' outrage
Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said he feared that Ba'asyir could now incite further violence. Mr Downer said that Australia and the US regard Ba'asyir as an extremist and want his travel restricted and financial assets frozen. Survivors of the bombings have expressed their outrage and frustration that Ba'asyir has walked free after just two years in prison. "I think the Indonesian government need to have a good look at themselves," Peter Hughes, who survived with burns to 56% of his body, told the Associated Press. But Mr Downer said that Canberra accepted the decision of the Indonesian legal system. The BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney says the Bali bombings brought Australia to the front line of international terrorism for the first time, hardening the government's resolve to fight alongside the US in its war on terror.

US 'biggest global peace threat' BBC News
People in European and Muslim countries see US policy in Iraq as a bigger threat to world peace than Iran's nuclear programme, a survey has shown. The survey by the Pew Research Group also found support for US President George W Bush and his "war on terror" had dropped dramatically worldwide. Goodwill created by US aid for nations hit by the 2004 tsunami had also faded since last year, the survey found. The survey questioned 17,000 people in 15 countries, including the US. The latest in a series of annual polls by the Pew Global Attitudes Project interviewed respondents between 31 March and 14 May 2006. Its release coincides with a surprise visit by President George W Bush to Baghdad in an effort to shore up support for US policy in the region.

'Fading goodwill'
The latest survey shows the worldwide reputation of the US continues to suffer over its prosecution of the "war on terror". Sharp declines in the public perception of the US were particularly apparent in India, Spain and Turkey. Goodwill towards the US had fallen from 71% to 56% in India, from 41% to 23% in Spain and from 23% to 12% in Turkey. A majority of people in 10 of the 14 countries outside the US surveyed said the war in Iraq had made the world a more dangerous place. Some 60% of people in the UK, which is the US biggest ally, felt the Iraq war had made the world less secure, while some 30% said it had made the world safer. According to the survey:

• Worldwide support for the "war on terror" has remained the same or declined
• European confidence in Mr Bush has sunk even lower than it was last year
• A majority of people in most countries feel the US will not achieve its goals in the "war on terror"

The survey also found little remaining evidence of the goodwill the US had earned over its aid for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In Indonesia, a major recipient of US tsunami aid, favourable opinions of the US had fallen from 38% in 2005 to 30% this year. "Last year we saw some good news in countries like Russia and India," Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Centre, told the Associated Press news agency. "That good news being wiped away is a measure of how difficult a problem this is for the United States."

Muslim differences
According to the survey, people in the US and Europe have grown increasingly concerned in the last year over Iran's nuclear programme. The US has accused Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb - but Iran says its nuclear programme has a purely civilian objective. Almost half of the Americans surveyed, 46%, viewed the current government in Iran as a "great danger" to stability in the Middle East and to world peace - a figure that has risen from 26% in 2003. In Germany, Spain, France and the UK, the percentage of people who regard Iran as a great danger is roughly three times greater than it was three years ago. However, the poll showed public opinion in predominantly Muslim countries was far less troubled by Tehran's nuclear programme. Muslim people also appeared less concerned than Europeans and Americans by the victory of the Hamas militant group in Palestinian elections earlier this year. The survey found concern over bird flu was largely confined to Asia, while two-thirds of people surveyed in each country said they were worried by global warming. Concern over the greenhouse effect was highest in India and Japan and lowest in the US and China. The survey interviewed people in China, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the US. Its margin of error was two to six percentage points.

Father queries Guantanamo suicide BBC News
The father of one of three inmates said to have committed suicide at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay has said he believes his son was murdered. "This idea of suicide is a lie. My son wouldn't commit suicide," said Ali Abdullah Ahmed, father of a Yemeni detainee found dead on Saturday. The US insists they killed themselves and is awaiting final medical reports. The apparent triple suicide has drawn renewed criticism of Guantanamo and calls for it to be shut down. A US official's claim that the three had committed suicide as a public relations stunt or an act of "asymmetric warfare" drew international condemnation.The US military identified the Yemeni who died as Ali Abdullah Ahmed, but the Al Jazeera TV channel, which broadcast the interview, said that was the father's name, and that the son was known as Salah Ali. He was found dead along with two Saudis, hanged with clothes and bedsheets in their cells. They were the first Guantanamo inmates to die since the first al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects arrived in 2002.

No trial
"I reiterate that neither my son nor any other Muslim would ever commit suicide," said Ali Abdullah. "My son was among those who memorised the Koran and was committed to his religion." He told Al Jazeera: "He was assassinated by American soldiers and I call on the Yemeni and American governments for an international investigation." The US has described the three inmates as "dangerous enemy combatants". However, human rights groups say the US has little or no evidence against many of those at Guantanamo Bay. Dozens of prisoners have been released without charge, but others have been held for up to three years without being charged or facing trial. The US has not yet decided what will happen to the three dead men's bodies. Mr Abdullah said he wanted his son's body returned home.

Foreign troops die in Afghanistan BBC News
Two US-led coalition soldiers have been killed in separate clashes with suspected Taleban militants in Afghanistan, the US military says. A number of suspected insurgents were also killed or hurt in air strikes which followed, a spokesman said. Attacks blamed on the Taleban and their allies have risen sharply this year, with hundreds of people killed. More than 30 foreign soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan this year, most of them American. On Sunday, a UK soldier and another member of the US-led coalition were killed in separate incidents in the south.

UK back-up
One coalition soldier was killed late on Tuesday in southern Helmand province, while a second died on Wednesday in the eastern province of Kunar, the US military said. The statement did not divulge their nationalities, but US military officials in southern Afghanistan told the Associated Press news agency the soldier killed in Helmand was American. British troops were first on the scene to provide back-up in Helmand's Sangin district, Lt Col Chris Toner told AP. Two other US soldiers were wounded. He said 12 "suspected Taleban" had been killed or wounded in aerial bombing after the ambush. Two other Taleban fighters were killed in a clash in the province of Zabul, the US military said. It rejected what it said were "false" Taleban claims that the group's fighters had killed nine US soldiers in the province. Local officials said one Taleban fighter was also killed in Ghazni province. The past month has been one of Afghanistan's bloodiest since 2001. Last week, coalition forces said that more than 40 suspected Taleban militants have been killed in clashes in Zabul and Uruzgan provinces. On Monday, the Afghan army said up to 37 suspected Taleban fighters had been killed in fighting in three southern provinces in the previous 24 hours. There are more than 26,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan, of which 18,500 are US. The remaining 7,500 come from another 25 countries.

Java volcano spews clouds of gas BBC News
Indonesia's Mt Merapi volcano showed signs of increased activity on Wednesday, emitting cascading clouds of hot gas, ash and volcanic debris. Hundreds of villagers, some of whom had only just returned from refugee camps, fled their homes on Merapi's slopes. Indonesian authorities again raised the volcano's alert level to its highest status, only a day after it was dropped. It will mean thousands have to be evacuated, a government scientist said. "The status was upgraded at 2 p.m. because of the increasing hot clouds," Triyani, an official at the state volcano monitoring centre, told Reuters news agency. The clouds of gas and ash travelled about 5 km (3 miles) down the volcano's southern slope, she said.

'Time to leave'
Some residents, thousands of whom have been staying in temporary camps, had returned home after the alert level was dropped on Tuesday. "We were very happy to go back in the morning," one villager, Egan, told the Associated Press news agency after arriving back at the refugee camp. "But as soon as we got there, we saw a massive cloud steaming toward us. We all decided it was time to leave." The volcano has been in what scientists call the early stages of eruption for weeks, but this is the first spike of activity since 8 June, when the volcano sent similarly huge clouds down the same slope. More than 15,000 villagers fled to safety. Scientists fear the volcano was further destabilised by an earthquake which struck near the ancient city of Yogyakarta three weeks ago, killing 6,200 people.

DR Congo 'plague' leaves 100 dead BBC News
A suspected pneumonic plague has killed 100 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to preliminary test results. The World Health Organization (WHO) said isolation wards had been set up to treat patients. But it says control measures have been hard to implement because of security concerns in the area. Nineteen of the reported deaths were in DR Congo's Ituri province - the area worst-affected by plague in the world. The outbreak began there in mid-May. Suspected cases of bubonic plague have also been reported, but the total number is not known. A team from Doctors without Borders, the WHO and the Congolese Health Ministry are providing support to local health authorities. Both strains of plague are spread mostly by fleas, causing an infection in the lungs which slowly suffocates the victim. If treated promptly with antibiotics, the victim generally survives. When left untreated, the pneumonic strain - which can also be spread from human to human via respiratory droplets - has a very high fatality rate.

De Klerk 'stable' after surgery BBC News
South Africa's last white president, FW de Klerk, is stable in a Cape Town hospital after complications following surgery for colon cancer. A spokesman said he had received get well messages from fellow Nobel prize winners, ex-President Nelson Mandela and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Mr de Klerk has had a lung infection and a tracheotomy since his surgery. A hospital spokeswoman said: "Doctors are satisfied with his progress and treatment is being continued." After coming to power in 1989, Mr De Klerk ended the apartheid policies of his National Party, unbanned the African National Congress and freed Mr Mandela from prison, paving the way for a peaceful democratic transition. He served as deputy president after the first all-race vote in 1994 and retired from politics in 1997.

Court asked to quash Canada law BBC News
Three Arab men have asked the Canadian Supreme Court to overturn measures that allow foreign-born terror suspects to be held for years without charge. The men argue that detaining them indefinitely or deporting them back to their homelands to face possible torture violates the constitution. Canadian intelligence services accuse the three of having ties to al-Qaeda. The case comes amid an intense security debate in Canada after 17 people were held over an alleged bomb plot. The three-day hearing began on Tuesday with the men's lawyers asking the Supreme Court to quash the special measures because they circumvent normal judicial process and are thus unconstitutional. They also challenged the conditions of the men's detention and the government's refusal to disclose the evidence against them. "Cases should be heard fully and publicly by an independent and impartial court," said Joanne Doyon, who represents one of the men, Adil Charkaoui. "I am asking for the same rights as any Canadian, as any human being," said Mr Charkaoui, who together with Mohamed Harkat and Hassan Almrei is challenging the legislation. "They cage us like animals...threaten us with deportation to countries where we would face torture and certain death."

National security
The men have been accused of having links to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. The government says Mr Charkaoui trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. It says Mr Almrei arrived on a false passport and belonged to a forgery ring linked to a terror group, while a lower court judge has found that Mr Harkat lied about having ties to al-Qaeda. The men say they are innocent and say they fear being tortured or killed if forced to return to their home countries, Algeria, Morocco and Syria. The Canadian government decided that while the men challenged their deportation in the courts, it was too great a risk to allow them to be at liberty in Canada. They were, however, free to leave Canada at any time. The security certificate programme has been enshrined in Canadian law since 1978. It allows the federal government to detain or deport immigrants without charge and without providing evidence to their lawyers. The government says a certificate is only issued when there is a need to use sensitive information that needs to be protected for reasons of national security or for the safety of any person. Since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, the measures have been used to jail five terror suspects, including the three appellants. Mr Charkaoui was subsequently released on strict bail conditions. Federal lawyers are arguing that the security measures and the exceptional secrecy in these cases are essential to safeguard intelligence sources. The Supreme Court is expected to take several months to issue a ruling.

Vietnam minister quizzed on graft BBC News, Hanoi
The first minister to appear before a session of Vietnam's National Assembly, which is investigating corruption allegations, has been questioned. The minister, head of public security Le Hong Anh, was asked about wrong-doing in three scandals linked to the ministry of transport. The Assembly is eagerly awaiting the appearance of the transport minister. The Assembly has been little more than a rubber stamp for decisions taken by the Communist Party leadership. In this session, however, it has begun raising a more independent voice. Members of the Assembly want to know who is to blame for a series of corruption scandals involving bribery, nepotism and illegal gambling in agencies linked, in particular, to the transport ministry. The first to appear before the Assembly, the Public Security Minister Le Hong Anh, faced a barrage of angry questions. Mr Anh was asked who was to blame for the scandals in which many millions of dollars are alleged to have been stolen from a road building unit known as PMU-18, Vietnam Airlines and the country's main port of Hai Phong. The hearings are being broadcast live on radio and television and there is a sense of expectation ahead of the testimony of the transport minister. He has already offered to resign but remains in post for the time being.
By Bill Hayton

Russia to tighten military draft BBC News
The lower house of the Russian parliament has approved a bill to scrap five reasons men can use to defer their military service. All men aged 18 and 27 must serve two years in the military but fewer than 10% do, taking advantage of a number of deferment options. But the Duma scrapped reasons such as caring for elderly or sick parents amid concern at the numbers in the ranks. Bullying and poor conditions have made conscription deeply unpopular.

Rural workers
The Duma's lower house voted by 359 to 53 to send the bill, which has sparked public criticism, to the upper house. Five of the 25 deferment reasons have been scrapped and four modified. Among those scrapped are for men whose wives are in the 26th week of pregnancy or beyond. Men working as doctors and teachers in rural areas will also no longer be able to defer. Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said fewer than 1,000 university graduates worked as rural teachers and doctors but that "dozens of thousands of people bring certificates". He said the measures were necessary to "notably reduce the length of military service to 12 months by 2008". Bullying, particularly of conscripts, is a major problem in the Russian army, correspondents say. This year two conscripts in separate incidents lost both their legs after being beaten. In February, President Vladimir Putin called for a special military police unit to be set up to curb military bullying.

UK agrees to jail Charles Taylor BBC News
The British government has agreed that former Liberian leader Charles Taylor could serve a prison sentence in the UK, if he is convicted of war crimes. This paves the way for his trial to start in The Hague, after other European countries refused to host him. A UN-backed tribunal in Sierra Leone, where he is in prison, wants the trial to be moved due to security fears. Mr Taylor faces 11 war crimes charges after allegedly backing rebels in the decade-long Sierra Leone civil war. "I was delighted to be able to respond positively to the request of the United Nations Secretary General, that, should he be convicted, Charles Taylor serve his sentence in the UK," British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett said. However, she said new legislation would be required. Mrs Beckett said the decision showed the UK's "commitment to international justice". The Dutch government agreed to host Mr Taylor's trial, as long as he was imprisoned in another country if he was convicted. Both Sierra Leone and Liberia are recovering from years of conflict, in which Mr Taylor played a central role. Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who took office in January, said she feared that putting Mr Taylor on trial in West Africa could lead to renewed instability. Britain, the former colonial power in Sierra Leone, sent troops to help oust rebels from the capital, Freetown in 2000. Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels were notorious for mutilating civilians, by hacking off their arms or legs with machetes. The UK's minister for Africa, Lord David Triesman, said they started the process in Sierra Leone "and we want to finish it". "We believe that this is a really strong - probably the strongest signal you could send anywhere in Africa - that there is no impunity, that major criminals will be brought to justice and if they are sentenced they will serve their time," he told Reuters news agency.

Rescue drama on slopes of Merapi BBC News
Rescuers in fire-retardant suits are battling to dig out two men trapped in a bunker on Indonesia's Mount Merapi. The fierce heat from the volcano's recent eruptions has melted shovels and the tyres of diggers as rescuers try to dig through two metres of rubble. The two men have been trapped in the bunker since Wednesday night, when they fled there to escape a burning cloud emitted by the simmering volcano. The bunker's door is blocked by a large hot boulder, rescuers say.

Oxygen supplies
Mt Merapi, in the centre of the island of Java, spewed out clouds and ash on Wednesday after weeks of intermittent activity. "We have so far dug one metre deep. It's very difficult because the bunker was covered with rocks and sand," local official Suryadi told news agency AFP. "We hope there won't be any victims but we have no idea whether or not they are alive. We hope that they are," another official said. He said the bunker was equipped with oxygen, but its electricity had been knocked out in the explosion. Wednesday's explosion has caused scientists to warn the volcano, which killed more than 1,300 people during an eruption in 1930, may erupt imminently. Some 15,000 villagers who had been housed in makeshift camps during earlier activity since the middle of May had begun returning home on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka bus blast kills dozens BBC News
At least 64 people - many of them children - have been killed in a mine attack on a Sri Lankan bus, police say. Another 80 people were wounded in the attack in the town of Kabithigollewa, 200km (125 miles) north of Colombo in Anuradhapura district. It is the worst incident involving civilians since a 2002 ceasefire. The government blames the Tamil Tigers, but they deny responsibility. The government has responded with air strikes on Tamil Tiger positions.The Tigers say the bus attack may be the work of a paramilitary group linked to the government. Violence has risen in Sri Lanka since early April when talks between the rebels and the government broke down. Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the administration would have to "seriously consider" the ceasefire agreement.

Children dead
Thursday's bus attack was in an area with an ethnic Sinhalese majority. Survivors said the 60-seater bus was carrying more than 150 people when it was hit by at least one mine. "The bus was blown over," survivor Chintha Irangani, 37, told Reuters news agency. Her three children all died. "There was blood and body parts everywhere. I fell unconscious. I saw my children's bodies at the hospital." One man, Priyantha, told Associated Press agency he had lost 13 family members. They were relatives of a policeman killed on Monday and were travelling to his funeral, he said. Military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said the blast was caused by one or two mines left in a tree - a tactic used so the ground does not absorb the blast. The bus was thrown 25m down the road. A doctor at the local hospital said at least 15 children were among the dead. The Tigers immediately issued a statement denying responsibility, saying that "directly targeting civilians... cannot be justified under any circumstances". The devices used in the attack - claymore mines - are widely used by the Tamil Tigers. But a Tamil Tiger (LTTE) spokesman, S Puleedevan, told the BBC's World Update programme that the attack may have been the work of a paramilitary group linked to the government. "The Sri Lankan armed forces are using various paramilitary groups. They are engaged in a lot of claymore attacks, penetrative attacks, against the LTTE, against the Tamil civilians, in the north-east," he said.

Talks failure
Shortly after the attack, the Sri Lankan military launched strikes in rebel-held areas. Brig Samarasinghe said the air strikes and artillery fire were "carried out as a deterrent" on "known [Tamil Tiger] targets in Sampur and Mullaitivu". Witnesses told Reuters that bombs were also dropped south of the Tigers' headquarters in Kilinochchi. The Tigers' spokesman, Mr Puleedevan, said the air raids had caused "a lot of casualties" although he gave no details. But he said: "If they are attacking Kilinochchi, they are showing they are ready for war." President Mahinda Rajapakse, who visited victims of the bus attack in Anuradhapura town, said he remained committed to peace. But suspected attacks by Tamil Tigers on security forces and killings of Tamils blamed on the army and others have soared in recent months.Earlier this month the rebels refused to meet the Sri Lankan government side in talks in Oslo, mediated by Norway. At the end of May the European Union added the Tigers to its list of banned terrorist organisations. The Tamil Tigers want a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka. More than 60,000 people have died in two decades of conflict.

Iran 'will not bow to pressure' BBC News
Iran will not bow to Western pressure over its nuclear programme, the country's supreme leader has said, according to Iranian state media. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments come as the Iran nuclear row is discussed by the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. But Iran's ambassador to the IAEA said Tehran was seriously considering a package aimed at inducing it to suspend nuclear work, Reuters agency said. Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran hoped for an "amicable solution" to the row. However, he warned against the "language of threat", and said his country would negotiate only without preconditions. The US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China have put together a package of measures to try to persuade Tehran to end enrichment of uranium. Iran insists its programme is entirely peaceful and is designed to meet its energy needs only, but the US and other powers suspect it is aiming to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

Oil less important
Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would continue to enrich uranium, as one of its prominent scientific objectives. "The Islamic Republic of Iran will not succumb to these pressures and it considers the continuation [of its nuclear programme] a main objective," he was quoted as saying. Nuclear energy was more important to Iran than extraction of oil, he added. Oil makes up 80% of Iran's foreign exchange earnings. The IAEA is currently discussing two reports by its chairman, Mohammad ElBaradei, saying that Iran is continuing to obstruct its investigation into its nuclear intentions and refusal to halt enrichment.

Gay bishop 'not an abomination' BBC News
The gay US bishop at the centre of controversy over his consecration has told a convention of US Anglicans he is "not an abomination". Gene Robinson said the Episcopal Church should "stand up for right", adding that Anglicans should not be swayed by fear of deepening rifts over the issue. The Ohio convention is to vote on how far to go in seeking to prevent the ordination of more openly gay bishops. A senior conservative said it would be impossible to prevent a split. "We've reached a moment where it is very difficult, indeed I think we've reached an impossible moment, in holding it together," Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh said, quoted by the Associated Press.

'Faithfully true'
The Episcopal General Convention is the first since Bishop Robinson's consecration in 2003. Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham in the UK, warned that a moratorium was needed on creating any bishops living with a same-sex partner until there was consensus in the church. But in an impassioned speech, Bishop Robinson argued that the question was whether the church recognised the life of Christ in its gay and lesbian members. It was not primarily about the future of the worldwide Anglican communion, he said. "I am not an abomination before God," he said. "Please, I beg you, let's say our prayers and stand up for right." He told the BBC that resolutions proposed by the convention were part of a conversation - one that he would not shy away from. "I won't walk away. I will stay here and I will talk with anyone who is willing to talk. I will be as faithfully true as I can be with people who can be equally as faithful," he said.

'Express regret'
The main motion being discussed by the Episcopal Church suggests exercising "great caution" before ordaining another gay bishop, but falls short of the moratorium on ordination being suggested by Anglican leaders. The motion also calls on dioceses to defer same-sex ceremonies until the Anglican communion achieves consensus on the issue. And it says that the Episcopal Church should apologise "for having breached the bonds of affection in the Anglican communion by any failure to consult adequately with our Anglican partners". It urges those who took part in Bishop Robinson's election to "express regret" for the pain they have caused. But it also recognises that gay people are "by baptism... full members of the Church" and apologises to them for years of rejection and maltreatment by the Church. The motion is mostly based on the recommendations of the Windsor Report, resulting from an inquiry into the row in 2004.

Montenegro gets Serb recognition BBC News
Serbia has recognised Montenegro as an independent state, after the country's vote to break away from Belgrade. "Conditions have been created for the government of Serbia... to recognise the Republic of Montenegro and establish diplomatic ties," it said. Montenegro's vote on 21 May ended the union of Serbia-Montenegro - all that was left of the old Yugoslavia. Many European countries, along with China and the US, have now recognised Montenegro's independence. They include Montenegro's Balkan neighbours Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Romania.

Iceland praised
Serbia-Montenegro was the last vestige of what was once the six-member Yugoslav federation. The Serbian parliament decided on 5 June to declare independence and resolve all disputed issues with Montenegro. Under the constitutional charter of the union, Serbia now inherits membership of the United Nations and other international institutions, leaving Montenegro to apply in its own right. Iceland and its people have become the objects of admiration across Montenegro ever since Reykjavik led the way in recognising Montenegro last week. Newspapers in Montenegro report that Montenegrin families have been offering Icelanders free holidays in their homes, and several papers have published maps of Iceland on their front pages, explaining the history and economy of the country.

Key US talks on Somali Islamists BBC News
The United States is convening an international meeting in New York, to discuss the military successes in Somalia of the Islamic militia. The talks come as the Islamists expand their grip on the country. They have seized much of southern Somalia, including the capital, from warlords who are widely believed to have the backing of the United States. The UK and Tanzania are among those at the talks, but the Arab League and Kenya are unhappy at being excluded. Kenya has played a crucial role in long-running Somali peace talks, which led to the formation of a fragile interim government, based in the town of Baidoa, because the capital, Mogadishu is too dangerous.

Mogadishu march
Somalia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Id Bedal, told the BBC's Network Africa programme that other key African countries should have been invited - but that he welcomed the US move in any case. He said Somalia was not asking for American military help, but for diplomatic and financial support. The Islamist victory in Mogadishu is seen as a major setback for US policy in the region. Residents of the town of Beledweyne, near the Ethiopian border, have set up their own Islamic court. The Reuters news agency reports that forces from the Union of Islamic Courts are also advancing on the town. They have also been consolidating their control of Jowhar, 90km north of Mogadishu. The AFP news agency reports that the Islamists have been holding talks with local clan elders in the house of the ousted Jowhar leader, Mohamed Dhere. The Islamists are setting up an Islamic legal system and are enforcing a "no-gun" rule in the city, AFP reports. Somalia has not had an effective national government for 15 years, during which time it has been fought over by a host of different armed factions. The UK, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Tanzania and representatives from the European Union are taking part in the New York talks. The United Nations and African Union have also been invited to observe. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and some Kenya-based diplomats have criticised the US for supporting the warlords. The US has neither confirmed nor denied the reports but says it will stop Somalia becoming a safe haven for terrorists. In Mogadishu, thousands of people have demonstrated against the proposed deployment of African peacekeepers in Somalia. On Wednesday, the interim parliament voted in favour of the force - strongly opposed by the Islamists. Under their proposals, the peacekeeping force would arrive in two phases - the first involving only troops from Uganda and Sudan. The second phase could involve troops from other regional countries including Ethiopia, which has backed some warlords. The interim government has asked the United Nations to lift its arms embargo in the country.

'Miracle baby' pastor held in UK BBC News
Kenyan evangelist Gilbert Deya, accused of child trafficking, faces deportation after his arrest in Scotland this week. Mr Deya denies accusations that he ran a child trafficking ring on the pretext of praying for his followers to conceive via miraculous powers. Reports say Mr Deya was arrested at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, where he had gone to assist with a paternity case. An official there reportedly recognised him as the wanted man. He is now in the custody of UK immigration officials. Police in Kenya had issued a warrant of arrest for him after his wife, Mary, was arrested in Nairobi in September and charged with involvement in child trafficking. She was arrested after she arrived at a hospital with a newborn baby to which she claimed to have given birth. Doctors who examined Mrs Deya, 57, said her claim of recently having given birth was false.

Extradition request
Kenyan police allege the Gilbert Deya Ministries is an international baby-snatching ring and last year asked the UK government to extradite Mr Deya. They say their investigation revolves around the disappearance of babies from Nairobi's Pumwani Maternity Hospital and involves suspects in Britain, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya. In 2004, the Kenyan authorities took 20 of Mr Deya's "miracle babies" into care after they were found to have no genetic link to the women claiming to be their mothers.

Howard protests cleric's release BBC News
Australian PM John Howard has written to the Indonesian president to protest against the release of radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir. Ba'asyir, who was convicted over the 2002 Bali bombings, was released from a Jakarta prison on Wednesday after serving 26 months. Security experts say the cleric is a founding member of regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah. Australia has called on the Indonesian government to monitor Ba'asyir closely. "I write to convey my very deep personal concerns and the distress of the Australian people at the release of Mr Abu Bakar Ba'asyir," Mr Howard wrote in a letter to his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "His release and the inflammatory statements that he has made in support of extremism since he has been released have been deeply offensive," he told parliament. Eighty-eight of the 202 victims of the 2002 bombings on the holiday island of Bali were Australian.

Contract cancelled
Late on Wednesday, Ba'asyir returned to the Islamic school he found near Solo, south of Jakarta. There he addressed a crowd of students and supporters who were waiting for him, calling on them to adhere "100%" to Islam. He is also reported to have described JI militants as misguided. "I believe their (militants) moves were wrong because they used bombs in a safe zone. In a peaceful area, they should just preach," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. "However, they are fighters whose intention is defending Islam which has been assailed by the US and its allies who fight against Islam everywhere." Ba'asyir also confirmed his reputation for anti-American rhetoric, telling a local TV channel: "If [people] attack Islam, like the United States and its lackeys have done, they have clearly attacked Islam, so we have an obligation to hate them. Thank God. That is God's blessing. As Muslims, we hate the United States because of God. The United States hates us because of emotion." Earlier, Australia called on the UN food agency to cancel a contract with an organisation linked to Ba'asyir to deliver earthquake aid, calling it "completely unacceptable". The World Food Programme had entered a two-month contract with the Indonesian Mujahedin Council (MMI) to deliver 95 tons of food to victims of the earthquake near Yogyakarta. Ba'asyir chairs the council. A spokesman said that the agency had made a mistake and had cancelled the contract, the AFP news agency reported. "When we signed the contract with them, it wasn't realised, the connection to Abu Bakar Ba'asyir."

Series of bombings hit Thai south BBC News
At least 40 bombs have exploded in the south of Thailand, killing at least two person and injuring many others. They went off almost simultaneously across the three provinces closest to the Malaysian border - an area plagued by a long-running Islamic insurgency. The homemade bombs exploded early in the morning, just as people were arriving for work. The largest hit a teashop in Pattani province, killing a local official and wounding many of the customers. Another went off at a government office in Yala province, minutes before the minister in charge of national security, Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya, was due to visit the area. Interior Minister Kongsak Wanthana said he had been given information that insurgents were planning a "major operation" on Thursday, but he said that damage from the blasts had been "minimal". The Thai authorities are battling an insurgency in the Muslim majority south, which is culturally very different from the rest of the country. Officials have tried both crackdowns and promises of aid, but the killing shows no sign of stopping. More than 1,300 people have died since early 2004 - mostly in isolated attacks on civilians or security personnel. But occasionally the insurgents launch more co-ordinated offensives - proving to officials in Bangkok that they're part of a well-organised group, capable of inflicting serious harm.

Europe's leaders ponder EU future BBC News
The 25 leaders of the European Union countries are gathering in Brussels with the aim of hammering out a future direction for the EU. They are considering how it should be organised and how much it should grow. At the two-day summit they may extend a pause for reflection on what to do with the EU constitution after its rejection by France and the Netherlands in 2005. Austria is also pushing for a decision that could further slow down the bloc's enlargement to the south and east.

Timetable?
EU countries are split between those who would like to bury the constitution, and those who would like it to be revived, in one form or another. At this summit, some want to agree on 2009 as a target date for institutional changes of the kind mapped out in the constitution, but others want to avoid setting a timetable. The debate on enlargement is expected to turn on the question of how much weight to give to the EU's capacity to "absorb" new members. The EU has always said that this is an "important consideration" affecting decisions about new members, but there is now a move from Austria, the outgoing EU president, to make the language stronger. BBC Europe Editor Mark Mardell says some countries want further enlargement to be conditional on the support of public opinion in the EU. The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, told the BBC in an interview that all democracies have to take account of public opinion. He added that it was possible for Turkey to join the EU, but it would be very difficult. "First of all (it will be) very demanding for them but also demanding for us here to be ready to accommodate such an important big country that is seen by so many of us as culturally different from let's say mainstream Europe," he said.

UK U-turn
France and Germany are backing Austria on enlargement, but the UK and the newer member states argue that erecting new barriers would be unfair to potential candidates. Other topics which may arise include:

• Transparency - Austria says discussions of EU legislation by the Council of Ministers should be televised. The UK, which took the same view during its presidency last year, has made a U-turn, and is now opposing the idea
• Foreign policy - the European Commission has proposed closer co-operation between the EU's foreign policy and security chief, Javier Solana, who answers to member states, and the European Commission's external relations apparatus
• Co-operation on crime - the Commission wants member states to give up their veto in the area of criminal justice, on the grounds that this would help produce common policies on cross-border crime and terrorism. The UK and France are in favour, but Germany is not.

Belgian charged over kidnappings BBC News
Belgian police have charged a man with kidnapping two schoolgirls, who are still missing after disappearing on Friday night. The two stepsisters, aged seven and 10, vanished at 0130 in the morning during a street party in Liege. The case has revived Belgians' memories of Marc Dutroux's paedophile killings. The suspect, Abdellah Ait Oud, 39, turned himself in to police after the authorities had publicised his details, but has denied any involvement. Reports say he was seen near Stacy Lemmens, who is seven, and Nathalie Mahy, 10, before they disappeared. He is said to be the boyfriend of a waitress who works in a bar near the spot where the girls were last seen. The general prosecutor of Liege, Cedric Visart de Bocarme, said he "had not confessed" during questioning. Police searched his home on Tuesday. Sniffer dog teams have also been searching abandoned houses and a railway line near where the girls disappeared, while divers checked a nearby canal. "We still hope to find them alive," said the Liege prosecutor.

Criminal record
In 1995 Abdellah Ait Oud was sentenced to five years in jail, including one suspended, for the rape of his 14-year-old niece, Belgian media report. In April 2001 he was rearrested for the rape and kidnap while on parole of another 14-year-old girl, the Belgian RTBF news website reports. He was declared mentally unstable and detained, but last December he was released, as the authorities were satisfied that he had been "cured". Belgium was deeply shocked by the Marc Dutroux paedophile case, in which two girls from Liege disappeared in June 1995. Their bodies were not found until a year later - in Dutroux's garden. In 2004 Dutroux was found guilty of leading a gang that kidnapped and raped six girls in the mid-1990s, leading to the deaths of four of them.

Hamas offers to restore ceasefire BBC News
The Hamas-led Palestinian government is willing to urge militants to renew a ceasefire if Israel halts its attacks on Gaza, a spokesman has said. Ghazi Hamad said the government would urge militant groups to stop firing rockets from Gaza into Israel. The Islamic Jihad group says it was to blame for the latest attack on Israel. Tensions have increased since the deaths of eight Palestinians on a beach, for which Israel has denied military responsibility. Hamas ended an informal ceasefire last week amid escalating tensions following the beach killings on Friday. Israel has said it was not responsible for the deaths near Beit Lahiya, but Palestinians have dismissed Israel's denial and are calling on the United Nations to hold an independent investigation.Since the deaths, Hamas has fired dozens of home-made rockets at Israel, causing panic and several injuries. But Mr Hamad told Israel Radio on Thursday he had spoken to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, who had said the Palestinians wanted "quiet everywhere". "We are interested in a ceasefire everywhere," Reuters news agency quoted Mr Hamad as saying. "We are ready to launch discussions with factions over stopping rocket firing but only if there is an Israeli commitment to cease all military attacks against all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank." Israel welcomed the offer, the Associated Press news agency reported, quoting foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev as saying: "If it is quiet, we will answer that with quiet."

'Clear messages'
Israel frequently bombards northern Gaza, targeting militant rocket crews who attack nearby Israeli territory. Earlier, Israeli officials said threats from Israel had stopped Hamas militants from firing rockets. A senior Israeli defence ministry official, Maj Gen Amos Gilad, told Israeli Army Radio on Thursday that attacks by Hamas had fallen after threats from Israeli officials. "We sent clear messages... and at the end the firing of the rockets stopped," AP quoted him as saying. Israeli media reports said Mr Haniya had asked his Hamas group's armed wing to stop the attacks, but Hamas officials denied this. In other developments on Thursday, a second Palestinian minister crossed the border from Egypt into Gaza with a large amount of money in his luggage. Information Minister Youssef Rizqa was carrying $2m (£1.6m), a day after Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar returned to Gaza with $20m in his luggage. Officials said the money would be used to pay workers' salaries. The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has faced a financial crunch since Western donors cut off funding, accusing Hamas of being a terrorist group.

Taleban target Afghan civilians BBC News
The Taleban say they have carried out a bomb attack on a minibus in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar which killed at least 10 people. The vehicle was carrying Afghan labourers on their way to work at a coalition military base in the city. Correspondents say it was the first such major attack on Afghan civilians working with US forces in the country. Police say the bomb was possibly hidden on the bus, and detonated during morning rush hour. Attacks blamed on Taleban have risen in southern and eastern Afghanistan this year, with hundreds of deaths. A Taleban spokesman claimed responsibility for the latest incident in a telephone call to a local news agency. He said that the Taleban had warned Afghan nationals not to work with US forces. Meanwhile officials say that the second most senior judge in Ghazni province, Jan Mohammad, was killed on Wednesday after he was abducted along with his young son. Officials say that the judge was shot dead outside his house, and that the whereabouts of his son - who was taken away in the car of the attackers - is unknown. The Governor of Ghazni province, Sher Alam Ibrahimi, described the incident as "the work of enemies of peace and stability".

'Totally destroyed'
Officials were also swift to condemn Thursday's bomb blast in Kandahar in which at least 15 people were injured. "It is a bomb explosion and it seems that the bomb was inside the minibus," Colonel Shir Shah told Reuters news agency. Kandahar bakery owner Amidullah was working in his shop when the bus exploded outside."I heard an explosion and one of my customers and one of my workers was injured," he told the Associated Press. "When I came out of the shop, I saw the bus totally destroyed on the ground. I saw people dead and wounded lying on the ground."

Worsening violence
US officials said the bombing marked a change in Taleban tactics. "It's the first time Afghans working here have been deliberately targeted by the Taleban," coalition spokesman Maj Quentin Innis said. "They are clearly a non-military target being targeted. That's a shift in tactics for the Taleban." There has been a surge in violence in southern Afghanistan, coinciding with the arrival of thousands of international troops trying to help the government bring security to areas where it has little control. As well as fighting between coalition forces and Taleban rebels, there have been many roadside bombings, suicide attacks and assassinations of local government officials. Thursday's blast came two days after two US troops were killed in clashes with the Taleban, and less than a week after the death of UK soldier. More than 30 foreign soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan this year, most of them American.

Indian shares stage record rise BBC News
Indian share prices surged on Thursday to close 6.9% higher, marking their highest ever single-day rise. Bargain-hunting traders and foreign investors bought shares after three days of heavy losses on the market, regaining some of the lost ground. Dealers said that the strongest gains came among motor manufacturers and producers of consumer goods. The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark exchange, the 30-share Sensex index rose 615.62 points to 9,545.06.

'Unexpected'
Overseas money had helped the market's momentum, said Vijay Tilakraj, senior dealer with brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher. "This was completely unexpected, but a welcome relief after the carnage," he added. Motorbike and scooter maker Bajaj Auto and cement manufacturer Grasim led the way, both gaining 14%.Indian shares have fallen sharply since 10 May, when the benchmark index reached a record high of 12,612 points. The markets have been volatile, having surged last Friday by 5.5%, only to lose ground again on Monday, Tuesday and then Wednesday, when it closed below the 9,000-point mark.

'Bouncing back'
Analysts believe that volatility will continue until there is more clarity about the state of global growth and the direction of interest rates in the US - the world's biggest economy. Market analyst Hemen Kapadia, of investment advisers Morpheus Incorporated, expects the Sensex to bounce back. "The fundamentals of the Indian economy haven't changed," he said. "It is still expected to grow at 7 to 8%, domestic companies are performing well and I think people have realised the sentiment was bearish without reason. Investors seem to be coming back to the markets." However, director of Ashwin Chinubhai brokers, Anand Dalal believes the underlying sentiment in the markets is still "very cautious". "It was not an India-specific problem, but external issues, such as the meltdown in global markets and the US increasing its interest rates, that led to the fall in the Indian markets," he said. "Investors do not believe the market has bottomed out and will hesitate to take any steps until they get a clearer picture of which way the Sensex is headed."

No 10 denies sentencing 'panic' BBC News
Downing Street has rejected suggestions Tony Blair's decision to look again at sentencing is a sign of panic. Home Secretary John Reid earlier this week denounced the case of a paedophile who could be freed within five years. Further revelations that 53 offenders given life sentences were freed within six years prompted Mr Blair to promise new legislation on sentencing. No 10 says a review is under way but Mr Blair was urged to stop "tinkering" by the ex-chief inspector of prisons. Lord Ramsbotham said the prime minister should stop making changes to the legal system, saying they caused more problems than they solved. "I just wish he'd shut up, frankly," he told BBC Two's Daily Politics show. Meanwhile, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has defended judges, saying they should not be the "whipping boys" for a flawed system. Lord Falconer, who is a Cabinet minister, said there needed to be a "very urgent" look at the automatic discounts given on jail terms as a reward for guilty pleas. The issue was raised by the case of paedophile Craig Sweeney, who was jailed for life at Cardiff Crown Court this week but could be released in five years because he pleaded guilty. Although Judge John Griffith Williams QC imposed an 18 year sentence, a one third discount for pleading guilty, plus a year already spent in custody, meant he would be considered for parole in five years.

Apology call
Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today: "Everybody agrees the sentence isn't what we wanted but it wasn't the judge's fault. "One of the problems that there has been recently is announcement after announcement from the prime minister that he's going to do this and that and the other, and more people are going to come in [to jail] for longer. "Unfortunately all that's doing is crowding the system even more that it is."The furore over who was to blame for Sweeney's relatively short sentence was stoked when the home secretary described it as "unduly lenient". That prompted an angry response from Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who feared it might appear that he had political motivation if he asked the Court of Appeal to considered lengthening the sentence. Asked about Mr Reid's intervention Lord Falconer, whose job includes the defence of the independence of the judiciary, said: "John Reid is perfectly entitled to say 'I think the sentence is too low'. He did not attack the judge." However, shadow attorney general Dominic Grieve criticised Mr Reid, calling for him to apologise for his remarks.Mr Grieve told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "there was no justification" for the home secretary's comments. "The sentencing exercise that the judge carried out was entirely the result of the government's own 2003 Criminal Justice Act; he followed it to the letter." Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said public confidence was vital to the operation of the criminal justice system. He said many sentences currently called "life sentences" were clearly not for life so should be renamed. Only cases where someone was to genuinely spend their entire life in prison should be called life sentences, he said.

Woman charged over Blair packages BBC News
An elderly woman has been charged after suspicious packages were sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family. Scotland Yard said the packages contained sugar and weed killer. Seventy-two-year-old Shirley Rita Freed, from Littlehampton, West Sussex, is due to appear before Brighton magistrates on 29 June. She is accused of sending hoax packages with the intent to induce a belief that they were likely to contain a noxious substance that would endanger health. It is claimed that packages were addressed to Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, Cherie Blair, and their son Euan. She is also accused of sending a package containing a white powder to Ann Clwyd MP and another package to Patricia Hewitt MP. Police said that a 64-year-old man arrested on 3 May this year in West Sussex on suspicion of making hoax threats involving noxious substances had been bailed. Scotland Yard said Mrs Freed was charged with offences under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 when she answered bail on Thursday afternoon.

Slovenia to get euro green light BBC News
European Union leaders are expected to confirm Slovenia's adoption of the euro during a two-day summit in Brussels. It is due to join the twelve-member eurozone on 1 January 2007, the first of the 10 new EU members to do so. Slovenia has met eurozone criteria for public debt, budget deficit and interest rates and said inflation would remain below the eurozone benchmark. Lithuania's application for euro membership was rejected because its inflation rate was too high.

Euros for tolars
The euro will be Slovenia's fourth form of legal tender since splitting from Yugoslavia in 1991, when it dropped the dinar for a transitional currency before adopting the tolar. If all goes to plan, EU finance ministers will fix the exchange rate between the euro and the tolar on 11 July. The Slovenian central bank would have the task of distributing 155 million euro coins and 42 million bank notes by 1 January, with just a two-week transition period during which the currency will circulate alongside the Slovene tolar. The government hopes that euro membership will boost tourism and foreign investment in the small Alpine state of just under two million people. The EU summit is also expected to explore the issues of European energy supplies and the admission of new member states from Eastern Europe.

Net poses dangers for soccer fans BBC News
Following your favourite football team in the World Cup via the net has its dangers, research shows. Many websites associated with teams playing in the tournament are infested with spyware and adware found security firm McAfee. The Angolan team has the largest number of risky sites associated with it, found the analysis. Top footballers, such as Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, also have some unsafe sites connected with them.

Risky results
To gather their statistics McAfee researchers looked at websites hosting screensavers related to the 32 teams competing in the World Cup. This was cross-referenced with data from McAfee's SiteAdvisor software tool. This has scoured almost four million websites to see whether they are safe to visit or if they host spyware and adware that tries to install itself on users' computers. This analysis found that 24% of the sites hosting screensavers for Angola were home to a variety of malicious programs. Some installed software that made unwanted ads pop-up and others led to people receiving a lot of e-mail spam. Second in the list of most dangerous teams to follow were Brazil with 17% of sites hosting potentially risky software. "The vendors of spyware, adware and other unwanted software know how to exploit fans' passions for financial gain," said Chris Dixon, director of strategy for McAfee SiteAdvisor. As well as looking at teams the analysis also ran search results for 736 football players taking part in the World Cup. Again Angola took the top slot with 45% of the sites associated with player Luis Mamona Joao (aka Lama) found to be risky. In total three Angolan players featured in the Top Ten of most dangerous players. About 30% of the sites associated with England's David Beckham and Brazil's Gaucho Ronaldinho were also found to be unsafe. The World Cup has also proved popular with virus writers who have been crafting malicious programs attempting to cash-in on interest in the tournament.

Glitter sex abuse appeal rejected BBC News
An appeal by disgraced British ex-pop star Gary Glitter against a three-year jail term for child sex abuse has been rejected by a Vietnamese court. In March, the former glam-rock idol was convicted of molesting two girls, aged 11 and 12, and jailed for three years. Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, has admitted letting a girl into his bed but denies committing abuse. He achieved fame in the 1970s with such hits as I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am), and Do You Wanna Touch.

'Dangerous behaviour'
"We did not see enough evidence to reduce the penalty for the defendant," said chief judge Truong Vinh Thuy at the People's Supreme Court in Ho Chi Minh City. "The decision was made based on evidence, documents and testimony of the victims. "The behaviour of the defendant is dangerous for society, especially towards children. He needs to be punished." Glitter, 62, shook his head several times during the reading of the verdict before shouting, as he was leaving the courtroom: "It's not a fair trial."His lawyer Le Tanh Kinh told the AFP news agency earlier this week that his client would continue to maintain his innocence. When asked by waiting reporters prior to the appeal hearing what he would do if he was released on Thursday, Glitter said he would "have a beer". The hearing was held behind closed doors. He has been in custody since 19 November when he was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City as he was about to board a flight out of Vietnam. During March's two-day trial, he was said to have committed a series of "lewd" acts while the girls were at his beach house in Vung Tau. Sentencing Glitter, judge Hoang Thanh Tung said: "His lewd acts have compromised the dignity of the Vietnamese people, law and common sense, and therefore it is necessary to punish him." The judge later told reporters he believed Glitter understood he had "a sickness". A charity calling for action to be taken to curb sex tourism has welcomed the fact that Gary Glitter has lost his appeal against his child abuse conviction. Philippa Lei, from the charity World Vision, told BBC News 24 that the judges' decision was an important ruling. "We're delighted at the verdict, because it sends a very strong message that these sorts of crimes against children will not be tolerated," she said. "And the fact of the matter is that Glitter isn't the only person to go overseas and commit these sorts of crimes. "We know that there are many British nationals who do that, and hopefully this verdict will tell them that they'll not get away with it in the future." The singer - who stood accused of kissing, fondling and engaging in other sexual acts with the girls - last year evaded more serious charges of child rape, which carry a maximum penalty of death by firing squad. In a BBC interview from prison last month, his first since he was convicted, Glitter denied ever abusing underage girls and blamed the UK media for his downfall. He admitted letting a girl into his bed but said he knew "the line to cross".

64 civilians dead in "Tamil Tiger" ambush:

At least 64 civilians were killed and more than 70 wounded in a claymore mine attack carried out by suspected Tamil rebels Thursday on a passenger bus in north-central Sri Lanka prompting the government to carry out air strikes on rebel targets
http://tinyurl.com/gsajo

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/0...9964675817.html


Bali bombings were God's will: defiant Bashir
Date: June 16 2006


Mark Forbes, Herald Correspondent in Solo

THE deaths of more than 220 people in terrorist attacks on Bali were "God's will" and the bombers were not killers as they were only acting as God's means, says the freed leader of Indonesia's radical Muslims, Abu Bakar Bashir.

He has also rebuffed demands by the Prime Minister, John Howard, that Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, monitor his activities and restrict his movements.

On the veranda of his home inside the inner sanctum of his Ngruki Islamic boarding school near the central Java city of Solo, Bashir made outspoken comments to a group of journalists yesterday afternoon, after his release from prison on Wednesday.

Bashir served less than 26 months for terrorist conspiracy after being found guilty of blessing the first Bali bombings as a founder and leader of the terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah.

Mr Howard said Australians were disgusted by Bashir's release. He wrote to Dr Yudhoyono yesterday requesting Bashir be monitored, his assets frozen and movements restricted.

Bashir said Australia could not interfere in Indonesia's affairs.

Asked for his response to the Australian families of the Bali bomb victims, Bashir said they should convert to Islam so Allah could comfort them. "If they are still non-Muslim, well, it needs to be understood that it is God's will. The ones who killed their families are not the bombers. They are just the means."

Bashir said he planned to visit his "Muslim brother" Amrozi, the most senior convicted perpetrator of the 2002 Bali bombings, who is now on death row.

Early yesterday, beside a banner stating "be a good Muslim or die", Bashir rallied more than 1000 followers on returning to his school, urging them to become fanatics to ensure Islam wins its "war" with the West.

The hardline cleric's tumultuous homecoming and defiant statements encapsulated the fears of Washington and Canberra that his release could revitalise extremists and inspire more terrorist attacks.

To cheers, Bashir praised Noordin Top and fellow terrorists who have launched a deadly series of bombings as "Islamic fighters", but said preaching rather than bombs should be used to defend Islam in "non-conflict" areas.

He attacked American and Australian "infidels" and called on Mr Howard to convert to Islam to save himself from hell.

Locals lined central Java's streets leading to Ngruki until the early hours of yesterday, waiting for Bashir to complete a 14-hour road trip from Jakarta's Cipinang prison. They greeted his arrival, fists pumping, with chants of Allah Akbar (God is great).

His motorcade passed under banners emblazoned with "We are supporting the fighters who fight to uphold Islamic law" and "There is no choice - live nobly or die a martyr".

Black-uniformed students guarded the school's entrance, while inside the carnival atmosphere of children playing contrasted with the stares of masked young men wearing jackets emblazoned with Mujahidin (Islamic warrior).

Bashir said Noordin and other radicals using violence in the name of Islam were "all Islamic fighters, but they are wrong in the actions they take. The mistake is why did they use bombs in non-conflict areas?

"However, they are Islamic fighters because their intention is purely to serve Allah and their goal is to defend Islam and Muslims who were treated with injustice by infidels everywhere.

"Thirdly, they go against those who are at war with Islam. That is why [I call them] Islamic fighters, but their ways are just mistaken."

Bashir said "if John Howard wants to be saved [from hell] he has to convert to Islam. God willing, God will forgive him from his sins. Secondly, never try to be at war with Islam, he'll definitely lose. We Muslims may probably be killed, if God permits, but Islam cannot [be defeated]."

The crowd cheered when Bashir exhorted them to uphold Islam.

"So I say to infidels that it will be useless to be at war with Islam. You will definitely be destroyed … No matter what, Islamic law must be imposed. For centuries, Islam reigned the world, the world was safe, prosperity and justice everywhere. After the fall of Islam and the world was reigned by infidels the world is now in full of darkness and full of injustice."

A spokesman for the Islamic Friendship Association in Australia, Keysar Trad, said Bashir's comments urging grieving Australian families to convert to Islam were in "bad taste".

Mr Trad said he was surprised by the cleric's outburst and his lack of "sensitivity".

He said Islam was "a serious religion" that did not "take other people's pain lightly".



Story Picture: Abu Bakar Bashir back at his Islamic boarding school.


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HIV worse in Africa's rich: study
Date: June 16 2006


DURBAN: The richest people in Africa have higher HIV prevalence rates than the poorest, disputing common beliefs that the disease is driven by poverty.

An analysis of data from eight African nations - debated at the third annual US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief meeting on Tuesday - found the poorest 20 per cent of the population had a lower HIV prevalence rate than the richest 20 per cent.

The study's author said the findings should be used to make sure AIDS prevention messages reached those who earned the most money.

"Poverty-driven programs are likely to have limited impact on prevention efforts when the majority of HIV-infected people are the wealthiest, not the poorest," said Vinod Mishra, the director of research at ORC Macro, a US company that conducts demographic surveys around the world.

Mr Mishra said wealthier people had more partners, "more opportunities to travel, more opportunities for casual sex" and rich men could afford to buy sex. Wealthy men in Africa also started having sex at an earlier age than poor men.

Several delegates at the meeting later took issue with Mr Mishra's conclusions. "Ninety per cent of the people in Africa are poor," said John Lambert, a British development official. "The danger is that people could say that AIDS affects the wealthy more than the poor people. We worry about that."

The Boston Globe




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More cash donated to Hamas
Date: June 16 2006


Ed O'Loughlin, Herald Correspondent in Gaza

AS THE West's economic boycott bites deeper, the new Palestinian Government is trying to survive on cash donated by friendly Muslim countries, it has emerged.

On Wednesday the Palestinian Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Zahar, was found to be carrying US$20 million ($27 million) packed in five suitcases when he returned to the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

Last month another official from Hamas, the ruling hardline Islamic party, was found carrying $US800,000 at the same crossing, and there are reports that such shipments of cash are now common.

Mr Zahar was returning to Gaza after a tour of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, China, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt, during which he solicited funds to circumvent sanctions imposed on the Palestinians after Hamas's election victory in January.

The shipments of cash are another source of friction between Hamas and its defeated rival, Fatah, whose supporters dominate the 160,000-strong Palestinian Authority payroll.

The cash was reportedly detected by European monitors stationed at Rafah crossing and by members of the Presidential Guard - a new force raised by the separately elected Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas - which mans the crossing.

Mr Zahar is reported to have angrily rejected attempts by the Presidential Guard to seize the cash as contraband, saying it was to be placed in the Government treasury and used to pay salaries.

News of the affair broke as hundreds of public servants and security men, believed to be mainly Fatah supporters, invaded a sitting of the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah to protest against Hamas's failure to pay their salaries for the past three months.

The invasion came only a day after members of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security agency opened fire on and set ablaze Hamas and government offices in the West Bank town.

The freeze in Israeli tax payments and Western aid, combined with a US threat to impose crippling sanctions on any bank that transfers money to the Palestinian Authority, has sparked an economic crisis in the already impoverished West Bank and Gaza.

Last week the UN reported warned that public services were collapsing and many people were struggling to buy food.

Some Hamas supporters have accused Fatah of seeking to exploit the Western and Israeli financial freeze to reverse the results of January's elections.

Tensions were further increased after a bloody feud between Hamas and Fatah gunmen in Gaza, and by Mr Abbas's attempts to force through a referendum seeking to oblige Hamas to recognise Israel's right to exist as a prelude to negotiations.

On Monday Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, announced in London that Israel planned to arm the Fatah leader's force so as to strengthen it against Hamas.




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Maoists to join Nepal government BBC News
The Nepalese government is to dissolve parliament and set up an interim government that will include the country's Maoist rebels. The move was announced in the capital, Kathmandu, after landmark talks between rebel leader Prachanda and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Prachanda said he wanted the new government set up within one month. Friday's talks in Kathmandu were the first formal meeting between the government and the rebels. Their joint statement formalised in writing an understanding reached at the height of widespread protests against the rule of King Gyanendra in April. The talks are the latest step in moves to end Nepal's decade-long insurgency.

No time frame
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says that in agreeing to dissolve parliament, the multi-party government has made far reaching concessions to the rebels.The two sides issued a statement after the talks outlining the moves. It says that the Maoists - who control most of Nepal's rural areas - have also agreed to dismantle their "people's government" once the interim government is in place. There was no timeframe in the statement. However, Prachanda told journalists that he wanted the interim government set up within a month. He also said he hoped that elections to a constituent assembly to be held by April 2007 at the latest. "This is a historic decision and will move the country in a new direction," he told reporters. The agreement also paves the way for the United Nations to become involved in inspecting the Maoist fighters and the army. "To conduct the elections to a constituent assembly without any fear, both sides agreed to request the United Nations to help manage both sides' weapons and monitor them," the joint statement said. There was no mention of the rebels giving up their arms. The Maoists took up arms 10 years ago, but are currently observing a truce.This is Prachanda's first known visit to Kathmandu in decades and has been taking place amid tight security. He was flown in from central Nepal by helicopter and was driven to the prime minister's residence where the talks took place. Our correspondent says the rebel leader has been underground for 25 years and his arrival prompted feverish excitement and a host of rumours.

Progress
Nepal's peace process gathered pace after King Gyanendra agreed in April to abandon direct rule following weeks of street protests and strikes.

The political landscape has been shaken up since the king restored representative rule. Opposition parties - who had been speaking to Prachanda while out of power - have since joined the government. The new government has released rebels from jail, dropped terrorism charges against them and agreed to the ceasefire. But differences remain between the two sides over the future of the monarchy. The rebels hope elections will clear way towards abolishing the monarchy, but the prime minister has ruled that out. Nepal's 10-year Maoist insurgency has left around 13,000 people dead.

Whaling summit setback for Japan BBC News
Japan has unexpectedly lost a key vote at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in the Caribbean island of St Kitts. The pro-whaling nation failed to remove an item from the agenda and prevent discussion on preserving sea mammals. Correspondents say for the moment at least the anti-whaling bloc appears to have retained the balance of power. Japan says it will consider leaving the IWC if it does not move back towards a resumption of commercial whaling. It lost the first vote of the five-day meeting by 32 votes to 30. Japan has spent years lobbying developing nations to join the IWC and wrest power from the majority anti-whaling bloc. Environmental groups accuse these countries of voting with Japan in return for aid, a charge which the Japanese deny. The BBC's environment correspondent, Richard Black, says environmental groups are delighted with the result of the vote. He says they believed a Japanese win on this motion would have had serious consequences for many species of small cetaceans. Not all of Japan's traditional allies have turned up here and a couple voted unexpectedly with the pro-conservation nations, he says. But our correspondent adds other votes lie ahead and other countries expected to side with Japan may yet turn up.

'Arrogant'
The basic argument is the same as it has been for years. The self-styled pro-conservation countries led by Australia, New Zealand and the UK believe whales are intrinsically special animals and should never be killed. In the opposition corner is a bloc led by Japan, which sees things differently. Japan's deputy commissioner to the IWC, Joji Morishita, says the organisation has become too concerned with conservation. Speaking on BBC Five Live Breakfast he said many Japanese people felt the IWC was "arrogant" and that whales could be used on a sustainable basis. This meant "science and probably international law" were on the side of the Japanese, he said. "Many of the Japanese citizens thinks that Westerners, [the] outside world, is imposing their own value code on Japan on an emotional basis, and naturally they think they're bullies or... arrogant." He added: "Allowing sustainable use of abundant species while protecting the depleted... we don't see the problem with that. It's exactly the same as conservation and management of any other wildlife or fishery resources." But if the argument is familiar, the balance of power this year looks very different.

Changes possible
Four countries have just joined, of which three look set to support Japan giving it a majority on paper. That could mean a number of important changes to the IWC. Japan has hinted it may remove programmes aimed at conservation and whale welfare and move towards overturning the 20-year moratorium on commercial whaling, although a vote for resumption of commercial hunting at this meeting itself is highly unlikely. Not every member nation turns up to these meetings, and the actual balance of power will not be known until two key votes scheduled for the opening day. To try to erode Japan's support, environmental groups have been campaigning in some of the small developing nations which traditionally support Japan. A survey commissioned by WWF suggested there was a majority opinion against whaling in all 10 of the Caribbean and Pacific states in which they polled. WWF is urging delegates from those nations to cast their votes accordingly.

UN agrees Taylor trial transfer BBC News
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously agreed to allow the transfer of the trial of Liberia's ex-leader Charles Taylor to The Hague. He is currently in prison at a UN-backed tribunal in Sierra Leone, where he is accused of backing rebels notorious for mutilating civilians. But it is feared that putting Mr Taylor on trial in West Africa could threaten the new regional stability. He has denied 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. On Thursday, the British government said Mr Taylor could serve a prison sentence in the UK if he was convicted of war crimes. The Dutch government had agreed to host Mr Taylor's trial, still conducted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as long as he was imprisoned in another country if he was convicted. Mr Taylor is accused of exchanging weapons for diamonds mined in rebel-held areas of Sierra Leone. Both Sierra Leone and Liberia are recovering from years of conflict, in which Mr Taylor played a central role. Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who took office in January, said she feared that putting Mr Taylor on trial in West Africa could lead to renewed instability. Britain, the former colonial power in Sierra Leone, sent troops to help oust rebels from the capital, Freetown in 2000. Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels were infamous for mutilating civilians, by hacking off their arms or legs with machetes.

Leaders chart future for Europe BBC News
EU leaders have set 2008 as a target for making changes to the EU rule book, which are needed for further expansion. A constitution setting out a series of such reforms was rejected by France and Holland last year, and the EU is split over whether it can be revived. Germany will suggest ways of continuing the reform process next year, with the "necessary steps" being taken in 2008. The leaders also proposed a list of practical policies designed to show the EU makes a difference to voters' lives. In other decisions, the 25 leaders:

• agreed to televise meetings of EU ministers
• said they would honour commitments made to countries that want to join the EU
• asked the European Commission to draw up a report on the EU's ability to absorb new members
• urged Bulgaria and Romania to carry out crucial reforms that will enable them to join the EU on time in January
• said Slovenia can introduce the euro in January
• backed a plan for donors to release emergency aid to the Palestinians, bypassing the Hamas-led government

Absorption
On the question of enlargement, the summit debated how much weight to give to the EU's capacity to "absorb" new members, amid signs that public opinion in some Western European countries is cool towards further expansion. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said the leaders had dropped the idea of making "absorption capacity" an additional criterion for further enlargement. The leaders asked the European Commission to produce a report this year to define exactly what absorption capacity is. The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, told the BBC on Thursday that all democracies had to take account of public opinion. He added that it was possible for Turkey to join the EU, but it would be very difficult. "First of all (it will be) very demanding for them but also demanding for us here to be ready to accommodate such an important big country that is seen by so many of us as culturally different from, let's say, mainstream Europe," he said.

Openness
On the constitution, EU members are split between those who would like to bury it and those who would like to revive it, in one form or another. Some countries, including the UK and Poland, opposed the idea of setting a timetable for institutional reforms. But UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said there was an obvious need to look at how Europe can operate more effectively when it is expanding "so greatly". He said the timetable for expansion gave the EU "effectively another couple of years" to do this. The leaders' decision to approve a list of practical policies, aimed at regaining voters' trust after the failure of the constitution, stems partly from a UK initiative launched at a summit in Hampton Court last year. "I think what citizens want out of Europe is to concentrate on the bread and butter key issues - about the economy, about illegal immigration, about security - that really worry them," Mr Blair said. If the EU was seen to be delivering real change for the better, he added, voters would be more likely to say Yes when asked to approve to institutional reforms.

S Africa marking Soweto uprising BBC News
South Africa is marking 30 years since the Soweto uprising, a student protest pivotal to the apartheid struggle. President Thabo Mbeki led a march along the route taken on 16 June 1976 by black students fighting a policy forcing them to learn in Afrikaans. Relatives of the children killed when police opened fire cried as wreaths were laid in their memory. The BBC's Peter Biles says the events celebrate the role played by young people in the fight against apartheid. But our correspondent says they are also a reminder of their sacrifice and of the challenges which lie ahead for young South Africans today.The Soweto uprising and the riots that spread to other township are seen as a milestone in the growth of the movement against white minority rule, which was finally ended in 1994. In a sombre speech, Mr Mbeki told a crowd of some 20,000 people at the FNB stadium that young South Africans were confronted by poverty, unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse and Aids. He accepted that a lot still had to be done to improve the education system.

Minute's silence
The commemorations began at the Morris Isaacson High School where the first march began 30 years ago, before proceeding to the Hector Peterson memorial, named after the first and youngest student to die in the protests. He was caught on camera as he died in the arms of a fellow student, in a photograph that became iconic in the struggle against white minority rule in South Africa.


His mother Dorothy Molefi and President Mbeki were among those to lay wreaths at the memorial, watched by hundreds of people who observed a minute's silence and then sang the Zulu struggle song "Senzeni na?" ( "What have we done?") "I remember that day - it was like death to me," Isabel Boto, 70, told the BBC News website, recalling 1976. "I am here to honour the children. I am very happy now, I never thought this day would happen." Jeremiah Nkotsi, 21, said the day meant a lot to young people too. "It brings the memory of those who died to let us be free, to let us be what we are today."

Four-star hotel
BBC Africa correspondent Orla Guerin says there is now a feeling that Soweto is starting to turn the corner and move away from being seen as a deprived township on the outskirts of Johannesburg. The area's first two shopping centres have been built in recent years and a four-star hotel is to be opened in October. But in some parts, the old problems of poverty, unemployment and crime still remain. Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the BBC's World Today programme that South Africa's continuing poverty was a "powder keg". "Unless we do something about that quickly, we may find all our achievements are a puff of smoke," he said. In Soweto, red paving stones symbolising spilled blood have been laid along the route the protesters took in 1976 from Morris Isaacson High School to the Orlando West neighbourhood where the fateful confrontation with police took place. The government said that 95 black people had been killed, but unofficial estimates put the number of dead closer to 500. At the time, Winnie Mandela, the wife of then-imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela, described the protests as "just the beginning". Domestic and international pressure eventually led to the release of Mr Mandela in 1990 and the country's first non-racial elections four years later. Mr Mandela was overwhelmingly elected to become South Africa's first black president.

EU endorses Palestinian aid plan BBC News
EU heads in Brussels have backed a plan to resume aid for Palestinians, frozen since a Hamas government took power. It provides funding for healthcare, power supplies and support for poor families, while maintaining a funding freeze on the Hamas-led government. EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin said it was considering an initial 100m euros (£86m), and wanted to have the funding mechanism operating by early July. A Hamas official dismissed the plan, saying it ignored democratic realities. Information Minister Youssef Rizqa said a funding plan that bypassed the Hamas government would widen the gap between the people, the Hamas government and the Palestinian presidency, led by the Fatah faction. The EU and other donors froze direct aid after Hamas came to power earlier this year. The group has refused to renounce violence or recognise Israel, and has been branded a terrorist organisation by the EU and US.In a statement on the aid plan, the 25-member EU said it would contribute a "substantial amount" via an international mechanism bypassing Hamas. The EU statement said the plan was drawn up in consultation with other members of the "Quartet" of Middle East peace brokers - the US, Russia and the UN. Ms Udwin said she expected final approval from the Quartet and other donors "within days".

Wages unpaid
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said: "We Europeans are determined to play our part in preventing a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories." Ms Ferrero-Waldner will visit the region on Monday and Tuesday next week for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The EU has been the biggest aid donor to the Palestinians, giving some 500 million euros a year.About 165,000 government employees - including teachers, health workers and security personnel - have not been paid for three months as a result of the aid freeze. There was no mention in the statement of the payment of salaries to Palestinian government workers, which is opposed by Israel, but it did refer to "social allowances" which would allow payments to health workers and families in need. The fund will be managed by the World Bank and the EU, working with the office of Mr Abbas, whose Fatah movement is the main political rival of Hamas. EU leaders insisted there would be no contact with Hamas unless it renounced violence, recognised Israel and respected existing peace agreements. "There can be no business as usual with a government that has not yet accepted the fundamental principle of peace," Ms Ferrero-Waldner said.

Hamas welcome
The EU urged Israel to resume the transfer of more than $50m (£27m) in monthly tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians, a move "essential in averting a crisis in the Palestinian territories". It said the revenues could be channelled through the new mechanism. In its statement, the EU urged other donors, including Arab states, to "consider early and substantial contributions".A close aide of Mr Abbas, Saeb Erakat, told the AFP news agency: "We welcome the European decision. Any aid to the Palestinian people is welcome." But he added: "We call on them to review their boycott of the government and resume aid payments according to the customary means."

Jury told of 'plane hijack plot' BBC News
The jury in the trial of seven men accused of plotting a bomb campaign in the UK has heard of a plan to hijack and crash a British Airways plane. The alleged plot was heard in a bugged conversation recorded by the security service, MI5, and played to jurors. A voice says: "The beauty is they don't have to fly into a building, just crash the flipping thing." Prosecutors say Omar Khyam was speaking to Jawad Akbar. The men and five others deny conspiring to cause explosions. The voice said to be Mr Khyam's discusses a plot to use 30 "brothers" prepared to commit suicide on a British Airways plane. Plans to attack electricity, gas and water supplies are also discussed in the conversation, which the Old Bailey jurors were told had been recorded in Mr Akbar's flat in Uxbridge, west of London.

'Good idea'
The voice, said to be Mr Khyam's, says: "Imagine you've got a plane, 300 people in it, you buy tickets for 30 brothers in there. "They're massive brothers, you just crash the plane. "You could do it easy. The voice said to be Mr Akbar's then says: "To find 30 brothers willing to commit suicide is a big thing."

'Jump him'
Describing the plot as a "good idea" the first voice then adds: "If you spoke to some serious brothers, to the right people, you'd probably get it, bro'... whether they were from abroad, you'd get it. "Thirty brothers on a British Airways flight... as soon as an air marshal gets up and shoots one the others just jump him." The defendants were arrested on 30 March, 2004, after fertiliser was found stored in a west London depot. Mr Akbar, 22, Mr Khyam, 24, and his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, and Waheed Mahmood, 34, all of Crawley, west Sussex, Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton, Beds, Anthony Garcia, 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 21, of Horley, Surrey, are accused of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between 1 January, 2003 and 31 March, 2004. Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny a charge under the Terrorism Act of possessing 600kg (1,300lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood further deny possessing aluminium powder for terrorism.

Report reveals global slum crisis BBC News
Slum-dwellers who make up a third of the world's urban population often live no better - if not worse - than rural people, a United Nations report says. Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Habitat agency, urged governments and donors to take more seriously the problems of at least a billion people. Worst hit is Sub-Saharan Africa where 72% of urban inhabitants live in slums rising to nearly 100% in some states. If no action is taken, the world's slum population could rise to 1.4bn by 2020. Habitat - the UN's human settlements programme - is hosting an Urban Forum in Vancouver next week on how to stem the crisis. Its report is billed as a ground-breaking survey of urban growth, making a clear distinction between slum and non-slum development for the first time in UN history. According to Dr Tibaijuka, speaking to reporters in London, slum-dwellers suffer a double disadvantage: they both live in misery and their plight often goes unreported given the traditional focus on the rural poor in the developing world. "The average aid worker is not aware of the extent of the problem - this report is the proof," UN Habitat's executive director added. Some states, the report notes, have already taken significant action to improve conditions, notably in Latin America where about 31% of urban people are classified as living in slums (figures for 2005) - down from 35% in 1990. Such progress is welcomed as part of the UN's Millennium Development Goal of achieving a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers by 2020.

Among the report's findings:[/list][*]Expectations of better access to education are unmet for most slum-dwellers; a 2003 study found that one in five children in the Nairobi slum of Kibera had no access to primary schools[*]Poor sanitation, described as a "silent tsunami", means illness and death are rife; in one part of Harare, 1,300 people share one communal toilet with just six squatting holes[*]In Cape Town's slums, children under the age of five are five times more likely to die than those living in the city's high-income districts[*]Young adults living in slums are more likely to have a child, be married or head a household than their counterparts living in non-slum areas[/list]"Rural poverty has long been the world's most common face of destitution but urban poverty can be just as intense, dehumanising and life-threatening," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in an introduction to the report.

Upgrade and prevent
A slum is defined by UN Habitat as a place of residence lacking one or more of five things: durable housing, sufficient living area, access to improved water, access to sanitation and secure tenure.Slums have existed in what is now the developed world since the Industrial Revolution and 6% of its current urban population also fall under Habitat's definition. However, the growth in slums is unprecedented, Habitat finds, and the nature of the problem has also changed. Of the urban population of South Asia, 57% live in slums though this is down on the 1990 figure of nearly 64%. Dr Tibaijuka told journalists that urbanisation in itself was not the problem as it drove both national output and rural development. "History has shown that urbanisation cannot be reversed," she continued. "People move to the cities not because they will be better off but because they expect to be better off." The only effective way to upgrade slums and prevent new ones emerging, she said, was to persuade governments to improve infrastructure. While help from international donors was required, she also argued that governments could take relatively cost-free action such as reforming property laws.

Ivorian militias fail to disband BBC News, Abidjan
Several Ivory Coast militias which support President Laurent Gbagbo have missed a disarmament deadline, throwing doubt on elections due in October. Some 2,000 armed men were expected to be disarmed and sent to cantonment sites in the western town of Guiglo. but no-one showed up. The militias were meant to have been disbanded as part of a peace deal. Ivory Coast has been split in two since rebels seized control of the north of the country in September 2002.

Flagging
The head of the UN Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme told the BBC he was not sure why the militias had not turned up. He said they had publicly committed to disarming and had now gone back on their word. A spokesman for Ivory Coast's DDR programme confirmed that information. The main militia leaders could not be reached for comment. It is the second disarmament deadline that the militias have missed in just over a week. Until the militias, who support President Gbagbo, are shut down the rebels who control the north of Ivory Coast will not disarm. Elections are due in October but the country is still split in two and the peace process is flagging, making it extremely unlikely that elections will be held on time.
By James Copnall

Somalis protest at foreign troops BBC News
Thousands of supporters of an Islamist militia have demonstrated for a second day in the Somali capital against the proposed deployment of foreign troops. The protesters held placards with slogans such as "open your eyes and ears America, Sharia law is the only solution" and "democracy go to hell". The Islamists control Mogadishu and much of the southern Somalia. They say the interim parliament's decision to invite peacekeepers means they will not talk to the government. "We offered the transitional government dialogue but it has unilaterally decided to bring foreign troops," Sheikh Abdulkadir Omar, deputy chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts told Mogadishu's Tarbuunka square, according to Reuters news agency.

Rising malnutrition
Some of the strongest objections are to the idea that Somali's regional rival Ethiopia could contribute troops to the force. They also criticised the US, which is widely believed to have backed the warlords defeated in Mogadishu by the Islamists. President Abdullahi Yusuf wants peacekeeping troops to guarantee his safety before he goes to Mogadishu, where he does not have a strong support base. His government, named after two years of peace talks in neighbouring Kenya, is based in Baidoa because the capital is too dangerous. Meanwhile, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has warned of rising malnutrition rates in southern Somalia, caused by drought and the recent fighting. WFP says 20% of children under five were so hungry they needed supplementary or therapeutic feeding. An estimated 58,000 children need targeted feeding but current programmes reach fewer than 10% of these children, WFP says. The insecurity has made it increasingly difficult for aid agencies to work in southern Somalia.

US setback
On Thursday, the first meeting in New York of a new international Contact Group on Somalia gave its backing to President Yusuf's government. It also called for urgent aid to Somalia and said it intended to address international concerns over terrorism. The UK, US, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Tanzania and representatives from the European Union took part in the talks at Norway's UN mission in New York. The Islamist victory in Mogadishu is seen as a major setback for US policy in the region. The US has neither confirmed nor denied reports it backed the warlords but says it will stop Somalia becoming a safe haven for terrorists. Somalia has not had an effective national government for 15 years, during which time it has been fought over by a host of different armed factions.

Heavy fighting in Sri Lanka CNN International
New fighting on both land and sea was reported Saturday in Sri Lanka, raising new worries that the South Asian island nation may be heading toward civil war. Sri Lankan officials said Tamil rebels launched attacks on police and navy targets in the northwest part of the island.


At least 20 people were reportedly killed after a rebel attack on a government navy base in the northwest, news services reported. The reported attack would be the first rebel response to government strikes on insurgent positions. The Friday aerial strikes by the government against Tamil Tiger positions followed a deadly landmine attack that killed 64 people on a crowded bus in the north-central part of the island. On Saturday, at least six navy sailors were killed in the rebel attack, a government spokesman said in a report from The Associated Press. The Reuters news service reported around people died in Saturday's fighting. The AP reported that at least six government sailors and between 25-30 rebels were killed in the fighting. On Friday, Sri Lanka's air force dropped bombs near the Tamil Tiger rebel headquarters in Kilinochchi on Friday, Reuters reported. (Full story) Hours before the airstrikes began, a powerful Claymore mine tore through a crowded bus carrying more than 100 passengers, mostly workers and school children, in the village of Kebettigollawa in the North Central Province. Army officials said 58 people died at the scene, including 15 children. Six others died after being taken to hospitals, officials said. A cease-fire between the rebels and the government -- brokered by Norway in 2002 -- has broken down during the past several months after rebel attacks and government reprisals against Tamil strongholds. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), known as the Tamil Tigers, have been seeking their own Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island nation, which lies to the south of India. The rebels began fighting in the 1970s for a separate homeland in the north and the east, where most of the country's 3.2 million Hindu Tamils live, complaining of discrimination by the country's 14 million Sinhalese, who are largely Buddhist. The struggle intensified after anti-Tamil riots in 1983, and more than 65,000 people were killed before the cease-fire. Talks scheduled for mid-April in Geneva were canceled after rebel leaders blamed the government for breaking a promise to disband paramilitary groups. The rebels accuse paramilitaries of acting with Sri Lanka security forces to carry out attacks on rebel members and supporters. About 700 people have been killed so far this year, Reuters reported, and many analysts fear a slide back into the island's two-decade civil war. Last month the European Union listed the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group alongside al Qaeda. More than 65,000 people on both sides have been killed since the Tigers began fighting in 1983 to create a separate state for Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamils, alleging discrimination by the country's 14 million Sinhalese.
Sri Lanka says 20 dead in clash Boston Globe
Sri Lanka says 20 dead in clash Reuters
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North Korea May Test Long-Range Missile New York Times
North Korea appears to have stepped up preparations to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, perhaps as early as this weekend, American officials said Friday. The move, if carried out, would put the North's military efforts back into the spotlight and could demonstrate that it has a missile with the range to reach the United States. In a sign of how seriously the United States is treating the prospect of a test, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned her Chinese counterpart on Tuesday and asked Beijing to use its influence to stop the test, a senior Bush administration official said. President Bush made a similar appeal two weeks ago in a telephone call to China's president, Hu Jintao, the official said. "Together, our diplomacy and that of our allies has made clear to North Korea that a missile launch would be a provocative act that is not in their interests and will further isolate them from the world," Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Friday. A test of the long-range missile by North Korea would be the first since 1998, when it fired a three-stage Taepodong 1 missile over Japan, demonstrating an ability that caught American intelligence officials by surprise. That led Congress to step up its push for deployment of antimissile defenses. North Korea declared a moratorium on its long-range missile launchings in 1999. The current concern focuses on indications first detected five weeks ago that North Korea is preparing to test a multiple-stage Taepodong 2 missile, administration officials said. Some Bush administration officials at first suspected that the moves were a grab for attention while Washington's focus was primarily on Iran and a way to press the United States to agree to direct talks. "They've done prep work that is consistent with a missile launch," one senior administration official said. "What we don't know is whether they really intend to go through with this, or whether they are just saying, 'I will not be ignored.' " But in recent days, administration officials said, they have seen more worrying signs that North Korea is accelerating its preparations. The officials would not be more specific about the information, and most would discuss the matter only after being promised anonymity, saying the sensitive diplomatic and intelligence concerns meant they could not speak for the record. American knowledge about the Taepodong 2 is limited. The system has never been flight-tested. American intelligence has steadily increased the estimates of its range. In 2001, a National Intelligence Estimate forecast that a three-stage version of the Taepodong 2 missile could reach all of North America with a sizable payload. A test of the missile could set off a political chain reaction on both sides of the Pacific. The Bush administration might step up financing for missile defense efforts. Japan might also increase such efforts, and hard-liners there might even push to reconsider the nation's nuclear weapons options. Both moves would alienate China. Just two weeks ago — a day after the United States offered to hold direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program — North Korea invited Christopher R. Hill, an assistant secretary of state and chief negotiator on the North's nuclear weapons program, for direct talks in Pyongyang, the capital. That offer was immediately rebuffed by the White House, which insisted that the North return to the long-deadlocked six-nation talks instead. The other nations involved in the talks are China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. The Taepodong 2 is believed to have three stages. The first is thought to be a cluster of No Dong missiles, according to Gary Samore, a former senior staff member of the National Security Council. The second stage is believed to be a No Dong missile. The third stage might be a solid-fueled system. If the North Koreans were simply trying to draw attention from Iran, it is curious that they began making preparations for the test more than a month ago, because that would pre-date when the Bush administration changed course on Iran, offering to join European talks with Tehran over Iran's nuclear program. North Korea agreed last September in the six-nation talks to abandon its nuclear program in return for energy assistance and security guarantees. But the agreement left unclear the sequence of events, and disputes arose immediately over whether disarmament or the award of benefits would come first. Then, a few months later, North Korea boycotted the talks after the United States cracked down on financial institutions, including a bank in Macau, that dealt with the government in Pyongyang, and with North Korean companies suspected of counterfeiting American dollars and laundering money. If North Korea goes ahead with a launching, the already floundering six-nation talks could go into the deep freeze. Critics say the Bush administration is in a tight spot of its own making, with no options beyond pressing China to press North Korea not to test. "I think the administration was dismissive too soon regarding this North Korea invitation for Chris Hill to go to Pyongyang," said Robert J. Einhorn, assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation under President Clinton. One result, he said, is that the administration cannot now offer Mr. Hill as an inducement not to test, because the North Koreans might view that as a reward for threatening to launch the missile. The Taepodong 2 is believed to have a substantially longer range than the first version, tested on Aug. 31, 1998. Pyongyang tried to place a small satellite in orbit by launching a three-stage Taepodong 1. Although the third stage — the part where the missile was supposed to boost the satellite into orbit — failed, the test showed that North Korea was technically capable of launching missiles with multiple stages, Mr. Samore said.
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Guns Finally Silent In Somalia's Capital

By Craig Timberg

MOGADISHU, Somalia, June 16 -- The thugs manning the roadblocks are gone. The warlords are on the run. And the guns in a city long regarded as among the world's most heavily armed have fallen silent. Most, in fact, have disappeared from view.

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Son of Italy's last king arrested BBC News
Prince Victor Emmanuel, the son of Italy's last king, has been arrested as part of an investigation into corruption and prostitution. The 69-year-old was held in the northern Italian city of Lecco in connection with the recruitment of prostitutes for clients at a casino. The prince's family have vigorously denied the allegations. Victor Emmanuel returned to Italy in 2003, 56 years after the House of Savoy went into exile.

'Stunned'
The prince was arrested as part of an investigation by magistrates based in the southern city of Potenza. Italian reports say he is being questioned on allegations of corruption and forgery. Investigators reportedly suspect the prince of having contacts with the Mafia, and playing some role in the hiring of prostitutes for the clients of a casino in Campione D'Italia, the Italian enclave in Switzerland. Speaking on Italian television, the prince's son, Emmanuel Filiberto, said he was "stunned", calling his father's arrest "yet another publicity stunt". "I hope [the prosecutor] is sure of his charges, or it will be the last time he does anything,"he was quoted by AFP news agency as saying. "They took him [and] they removed his mobile phone... They treated him like a bandit." Victor Emmanuel is the son of King Umberto II, who was forced into exile after World War II as punishment for the support offered by his father King Victor Emmanuel III to the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.